196 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [^September, 
the first day or two we found no land, all the banks of 
the river being flooded, but afterwards we had plenty of 
places on which to go on shore and make our fire. Ge- 
nerally, as soon after daylight as we could discover a 
convenient spot, we landed and made coffee, into which 
we broke some biscuit and put a piece of butter, which 
I soon found to be a very great improvement in the ab- 
sence of milk. About ten or eleven we stopped again 
for breakfast — the principal meal for the Indians. We 
now cooked a fowl, or some fish if we had caught any 
during the night. About six we again landed, to prepare 
supper and coffee, which we sat sipping on the top of 
the tolda, while we proceeded on our way, till eight or 
nine at night, when the canoe was moored in a place 
where we could hang up our hammocks on shore, and 
sleep comfortably till four or five in the morning. Some- 
times this was varied by stopping for the night at six 
o’clock, and then we would start again by midnight, or 
by one or two in the morning. We would often make 
our stoppages at a cottage, where we could buy a fowl or 
some eggs, or a bunch of bananas or some oranges ; or at 
another time at a pretty opening in the forest, where some 
would start off with a gun, to shoot a curassow or a guan, 
and others would drop their line into the water, and soon 
have some small but delicious fish to broil. Senhor L. 
was an old hand at canoe-travelling, and was always w^ell 
provided with hooks and lines. Bait was generally care- | 
fully prepared during the day, and at night the lines | 
would be thrown in ; and we were often rewarded with a * 
fine pirahiba of twenty or thirty pounds’ weight, which || 
made us a breakfast and supper for the next day. -J} 
